The Prix de la maîtrise d’ouvrage publique (Public Procurement Award) was established in 2011 by the Cellule architecture, on the initiative of the Minister for Culture of the French Community. The Public Commissioning Award is a biennial prize recognising best practice in public procurement. Each new edition offers a fresh opportunity to observe developments in the field. This year’s list of winners includes two prizes and two honourable mentions.

The first edition in 2011 had 34 entrants, but from the second edition onwards, the number of entries for the Public Building Commission Award plummeted (18 candidates in 2013). Since then, we have seen a very slight (but steady) increase of one additional entry per year. Although this trend may be explained by a reduction in the eligibility period for projects following the first edition (from five to three years), the number of participants today remains too low and cannot be considered representative of the activities of public building authorities in the French Community. This problem has already been highlighted in previous editions, but a solution has yet to be found. How can we maintain a sufficiently critical perspective and assess the reality on the ground with such a limited sample? But it is what it is, and the 2017 jury had no intention of relaxing the assessment criteria. It awarded a small number of distinctions, a statement on the state of public building contracts in the French Community. The jury did not award the Grand Prize because, in none of the submitted entries, did it observe perfect coherence between an ‘exemplary procedure’ and an ‘exceptional architectural project’. In the Public Facilities category, there were thirteen entries, and the jury awarded one prize and one honourable mention. Public Housing saw one winner selected from five entries. In the Open Category, the sole entry received an honourable mention. No prizes or honourable mentions were awarded in the Public Spaces and Landscape category. As the aim is not to award prizes indiscriminately, but rather to bring about a shift in mindset and practice, the two prizes and the two honourable mentions were rightly awarded.